Soil-Less Seed Germination and Root Growth of Date Palm Affected by Biochar and Metal Nanoparticles | ||||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
| Article 6, Volume 8, Issue 2, February 2017, Page 77-84 PDF (1.76 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2017.37095 | ||||
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| Author | ||||
| E. Marzouk | ||||
| Division of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Agricultural Sciences, Arish University, North Sinai 45516, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Nanomaterials and organic derived-biochar are proposed to be the materials for the new millennium, particularly in agricultural sector. Smarter use of these materials in crop production could be achievable to solve a lot of problems. However, a thorough understanding of the interactions of nanoparticles and biochar with plants is required prior to general recommendation. The present study serves to investigate the impact of silver (Ag) and zinc (Zn) nanoparticles (NPs) and biochar on a problematic seed germination and seedling early growth rate of Zaghloul date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). Two laboratory experiments were undertaken in soil-less culture systems; (i) soil-less petri dish was used to improve the seed germination of date palm under different concentrations of AgNPs (0, 1, 5, 10, 20, 40 mgl-1) and biochar (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5 g/petri dish) and (ii) hydroponic system was used to study the impact of ZnNPs (0, 0.002, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.1 %) in root growth rate of date palm according to the results obtained from experiment (i). The results showed that a significant increasing in seed germination rates for all treatments compare with the control. Although higher concentration of AgNPs (40 mgl-1) and biochar ( 3 and 5 g / petri dish) showed an increasing values of seed germination comparing to the control, they pose initial inhibitory effect of seed germination comparing to their lower concentrations. However, the addition of either 20 mg AgNPs l-1 or 2 g / petri dish biochar showed the highest germination values. These concentrations were further studied under hydroponic culture system to investigate the effect of ZnNPs on root growth rate of date palm. The addition of ZnNPs improves root growth rate of date palm for all treatments. However, the root growth empirical model confirms that the seed initially treated by 2 g/ petri dish biochar had a superior root growth comparing to seed initially treated by AgNPs. Therefore, we recommend using both treatments (AgNPs and biochar), at lower concentrations, combined by nanofertilzer of ZnNPs to improve Zaghloul seed germination and seedling growth. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Soil-less petri dish; Hydroponic; silver; zinc; Nanoparticles; Biochar; date palm | ||||
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